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Letters written and received by a sailor onboard HMS Hood

Algernon Foster was an insurance agent in Hastings and a member of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserves (RNVR).

At the outbreak of World War Two the Royal Navy mobilised him as an Ordinary Seaman. After training at HMS Royal Arthur, a shore base at Skegness, and spending a period at the barracks in Portsmouth, Algernon joined HMS Hood in March 1940 and served as a gunner.

HMS Hood was one of the largest warships in the world when the Royal Navy commissioned the vessel in 1920 and took part in the 1923-24 World Cruise. Algernon and his fiance Mabel exchanged the following letters describing preparations for their wedding and their day-to-day lives during the war. Sadly, in May 1941, the German battleship Bismarck sank HMS Hood killing Algernon.

Article Highlights

• Wedding preparations

• The loss of HMS Hood

• Mabel's desperate search for news